Patrol

Audit Finds LAPD Under Reported 2014 Aggravated Assaults by More Than 20%

The Los Angeles Police Department continued to struggle in accurately classifying serious assaults last year, according to an audit released Tuesday.

The audit comes after aLos Angeles Times investigation last year revealed the department had routinely misclassified serious assaults as minor offenses that weren’t counted in the city’s crime rate.

The new review examined one crime category: aggravated assault. Based on sampling done by auditors, officials estimate that there were actually 23% more aggravated assaults in 2014 than the LAPD originally reported.

The LAPD’s original crime statistics showed serious assaults jumped 28% last year. But the audit suggests that the increase was even higher, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Scanner audio captured an officer’s account of what happened at the scene, CWBChicago reports: “Ten people surrounded me, indicating that they had firearms. And one person pulled him away from me, holding his waist, indicating that he would use a firearm against me.”

There were so many police officers, sheriff’s deputies and Highway Patrol troopers that the court appearance had to be moved out of Justice Court to Judge John Larson’s Courtroom Number Three on the third floor of the Missoula County Courthouse.

The vehicle pursuit ended in the town of Kittitas where Deputy Thompson was backed up by Officer Benito Chavez. The suspect exited the vehicle and exchanged shots with the two law enforcement officers.

Sarah Wilson and her boyfriend were arrested during a stop in Chesapeake after officers allegedly found drugs in the 1996 Lexus the couple were driving. Police said they handcuffed Wilson and, while attempting to apprehend her boyfriend, 27-year-old Holden Medlin, he became combative and ran away from the scene.